oons to match, and a brown jug for the cider.
The cloth was coarse, but white as snow, and the little maids had seen
the blue-eyed flax grow, out of which their mother wove the linen they
had watched and watered while it bleached in the green meadow. They had
no napkins and little silver; but the best tankard and Ma's few wedding
spoons were set forth in state. Nuts and apples at the corners gave an
air, and the place of honor was left in the middle for the oranges yet
to come.

"Don't it look beautiful?" said Prue, when they paused to admire the
general effect.

"Pretty nice, I think. I wish Ma could see how well we can do it," began
Tilly, when a loud howling startled both girls, and sent them flying to
the window. The short afternoon had passed so quickly that twilight had
come before they knew it, and now, as they looked out through the
gathering dusk, they saw four small black figures tearing up the road,
to come bursting in, all screaming at once: "The bear, the bear! Eph,
get the gun! He's coming, he's coming!"

Eph had dropped his fiddle, and got down his gun before the girls could
calm the children enough to tell their story, which they did in a
somewhat incoherent manner. "Down in the holler, coastin', we heard a
growl," began Sol, with his eyes as big as saucers. "I see him fust
lookin' over the wall," roared Seth, eager to get his share of honor.

"Awful big and shaggy," quavered Roxy, clinging to Tilly, while Rhody
hid in Prue's skirts, and piped out: "His great paws kept clawing at us,
and I was so scared my legs would hardly go."

"We ran away as fast as we could go, and he come growling after us. He's
awful hungry, and he'll eat every one of us if he gets in," continued
Sol, looking about him for a safe retreat.

"Oh, Eph, don't let him eat us," cried both little girls, flying up
stairs to hide under their mother's bed, as their surest shelter.

"No danger of that, you little geese. I'll shoot him as soon as he
comes. Get out of the way, boys," and Eph raised the window to get good
aim.

"There he is! Fire away, and don't miss!" cried Seth, hastily following
Sol, who had climbed to the top of the dresser as a good perch from
which to view the approaching fray.

Prue retired to the hearth as if bent on dying at her post rather than
desert the turkey, now "browning beautiful," as she expressed it. But
Tilly boldly stood at the open window, ready to lend a hand if the enemy
proved too much for Ep